Having an in-depth understanding of how forecast users access, understand, and apply avalanche hazard information is critical for making informed decisions about how to improve existing products or develop new ones.

Online surveys have established themselves as a popular tool among avalanche warning services and researchers, but inconsistencies in the wording and format of background questions make it difficult to compare results and combine study insights into an overall picture of the practices, needs, and capabilities of forecast users.

The purpose of this initiativel is to provide standardized background questions for avalanche safety surveys that allow for a comprehensive and consistent characterization of participants.

The standarized questions are available in various languages and have been localized for various avalanche warning services/countries. Click on the links below to access the different versions.

The questions have been developed by the Simon Fraser University Avalanche Research Program in collaboration with the above avalanche warning services. We appreciate the financial support they have provided for the development and translation of the standardized questions.

We encourage academic and practitioner researchers to use our standardized background questions in their own research projects to improve consistency and make it easier to compare and combine the insights of our studies.

If you are using our questions, please include the following citation in your publications:

Please contact Dr. Pascal Haegeli at pascal_haegeli@sfu.ca if you have any questions, comments, and/or want to contribute to this resource with additional translations. Click here for more information about our research program.